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Sports IllustratedDec 4, 1989 v71 n23 p97(7)The shadows of the sea: people fear shark, but they are vital to the sea. COPYRIGHT 1989 Time, Inc.
hertz). Polynesian shark fishermen traditionally pound the gun-wales of their boats with clubs to draw schools of the
THE SHADOWS OF THE SEA On Sept. 13, 1988, Susan
predators. During the attack, Barnes and Segrest had
Barnes, Jon Martin and Terry Segrest, Martin’s girlfriend,
seen two other sharks circling the boat.
anchored their 17-foot boat next to the enormous granite blocks that form one of the two St. Andrews State Park
About half an hour later, the dive boat Capt. Scuba II, held
jetties in Panama City, Fla. It was a pleasant afternoon,
inshore by hurricane-caused turbulence and murkiness out
and they had just finished a picnic lunch when they
in the open Gulf of Mexico, dropped anchor near the site of
decided to go for a leisurely swim. Soon, the two young
the fatal attack. Ignorant of what had just happened, a
women saw porpoises rolling in the surf nearby. Back they group of vacationers put on masks, fins and snorkels, and climbed into the boat. Martin, still in the water, chided them dived into the water to explore the St. Andrews jetties. for being afraid.
Claude Perdue Jr., from Kingsport, Tenn., and two friends were stroking toward the jetties when Perdue felt his left
"I’m not afraid of them," Barnes retorted. "I just don’t want
flipper bump something. Instinctively he drew his leg up to
to be i n the water while they’re around me."
see what it was. Then a shadow behind him darted in, grabbed the fin off his right foot and sped on. Perdue and
Martin, according to the Florida Marine Patrol report,
his friends bolted across the water to the nearest boat, 50
continued to tease the women about sharks, humming the yards away. The other divers were piling in behind him drumming score from Jaws, knocking and jolting the boat
when they heard screams of "Shark!" coming from the
like Peter Benchley’s great white shark. Suddenly Martin
jerked spasmodically. "Help me, help me!" he yelled.
Harold and Dorothy Hadden, of McDonough, Ga., had also
Even when Barnes saw a six-foot black shape beside
been on the Capt. Scuba II, but swam off toward an area
Martin, she thought he was joking, extending his leg out to known as Shell Island Beach instead of toward the jetties. look like a shark. But when he began reaching underwater They noticed a dark shape circling them as they swam and to fight something off, the two women screamed and tried
waded in the shallows, and thought it was a porpoise.
desperately to pul him into the boat.
Suddenly, a shark’s head rose out of the water and grabbed the woman’s right arm in its teeth. She screamed
His hands were in shreds. Each woman grabbed an arm,
as her husband kicked at the attacker. The shark let go.
but at 220 pounds, Martin was too heavy to lift. the shark
Hadden had gotten his body between the shark and his
bit down on his right leg, just below the knee, and hung on wife, shouting for her to get to the beach. The fish kept until the grisly tug-of-war stripped all the flesh off the bone. coming, and he kept pounding it, abrading his hands on its Martin went into shock. The women managed to lift him
rasping hide, kicking out, pushing it away. His fist went into
halfway into the boat, when the shark circled back for
the shark’s mouth and it clamped down, inflicting severe
another attack. They held on to Martin as the shark shook
puncture wounds on his arm, but the fish let go as the
him, tearing a massive chunk out of his right thigh. the
couple backed into the surf line. After the bleeding pair had
women got a close-up look at its dark-gray 18-inch-wide
fought to where the waves were breaking, the shark ended
head, its rounded nose and its smooth triangular teeth.
From their description, experts later surmised that the attacker was a bull shark, a known man-eater.
Mike Haglund, captain of Capt. Scuba II, radioed the Coast Guard for help. While they waited, Haglund and his mate
Segrest told Barnes to start the motor, hoping to scare the watched a large shark--possibly the killer fish--swimming shark away and pull her boyfriend to the beach. But when
up and down the shoreline. "It acted funny," he re-called.
Barnes hit the switch, the boat lurched forward and stalled, "It didn’t seem to be in any kind of rush, it didn’t go and Martin was jerked from Segrest’s grasp. People in a
anywhere or try to get away. I’ve seen a lot of sharks in my
passing boat had heard the women’s screams and seen
time," he said, "but I’ve never seen one like that."
the bedlam. They rushed to help. Martin lay face down in a bloody sea. The rescuers gaffed his bathing suit, and
Quickly, the Florida Marine Patrol issued warnings to
pulled him to the beach. He was dead.
swimmers and began flights along the shoreline. A school of 200 blacktip sharks was spotted in the area, but that, in
When Martin knocked on the boat, he may have caused
itself, was not unusual. According to Ren Lohoefener of
the fatal attack. Scientists know that sharks detect and
the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in
home in on low-frequency sounds (between 50 and 1,000
Pascagoula, Miss., schools of sharks often congregate
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along sandy beaches, intermixed with swimmers and
U.S. over the past decade. Dr. Robert Hueter of the Mote
fishermen. In recent years, NMFS biologists have
Marine Laboratory in sarasota, Fla., has monitored the
conducted aerial surveys along the northern beaches of
increasing rate of commercial shark fishing in Florida
the Gulf of Mexico. Looking down from 1,000 feet at the
during the 1980s. Often the number of sharks landed has
white surf, they have seen hundreds of sharks. "They’re
doubled from one year to the next, and now this $3 million
just sitting there, right on those sandbars in two or three
fishery takes well over 100,000 sharks each year. Many
feet of water," says Carol Roden, a biologist with the
end up as domestic table fare, but a lot are pursued for
project. "Aside from hammerheads, we can’t tell what
their fins, which are much sought after in the Far East for
species they are from up there. Sometimes we see people
wading out and surf casting right next to them. I want to shout, ’Get out of there!’"
The commercial fishing boat we sailed on in May 1988 was specially built for long-lining and was on only its
The truth is, sharks and people have been swimming
second voyage. Its huge reel spewed out mile after mile of
together for a long time, and people are generally not
line into the night sea somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico
bothered by the fish. It’s estimated that 40 to 100 shark
south of New Orleans. It was hard and dangerous fishing.
attacks occur per year worldwide, fewer than 20% of them
As the running line played out, the crew worked feverishly,
fatal. But to the family of Jon Martin, the statistics are cold
snapping weights and hooks baited with snake eels onto
dropper lines. Several hours later, the men began the slow process of hauling back. "Got a shark coming," a crew
What happened, then, in Panama City (which, in the
member hollered. A hard snatch yanked up a six-foot
grimmest of ironies, is only 40 miles from where the movie
blacktip through the starboard gateway. The shark went
Jaws II was shot)? Why did that shark attack when it did?
wild, thrashing, beating its body back and forth. With a
Or did several sharks attack? Mike Brim, a marine biologist
loud whack, a blow from a machete parted the sandpapery
who happened to be nearby at the time, reported that the
skin and left a deep cut behind the head. The shark
water was unusually murky in the area at the time of the
stiffened and twitched. Another swipe, and off came the
attack. Hurricane Gilbert, one of the largest storms of the
tail, blood gushing out of the fish’s caudal artery in a
century, hit the Yucatan Peninsula the next day. Hurricane
steady stream. Then another chop took off the first dorsal
Florence had recently passed near the Panama City area,
fin, then the second dorsal--dried, they will sell for $20 to
and with it had come ultralow barometric readings and
$25 a pound. The shark gave a violent twitch as members
disrupted surf patterns. Could any of these occurrences
of the crew twisted its head around and around to remove
have affected the shark? Or was the attacker a sick or
it; they threw it, with the still-attached guts, into the sea.
The kidneys were blasted out of the carcass with a deck hose, to prevent the flesh from being contaminated with
On June 29 of this year another group of divers was
the strong smell and taste of urea. The finless, headless
spearfishing on a wreck nine miles off Panama City.
"trunk" was heaved down into a bin to be brought to
Sharks appeared, and the divers fled the water. Witnesses
aboard the dive boat Duchess saw Rick Webster, a policeman from Bartlett, Tenn., frantically waving his spear
More sharks came aboard, and thick clotted blood ran
gun; his personal flotation device was inflated. Suddenly
through the scuppers and stained the sea. The trunks piled
he was snatched violently beneath the surface and was
up like cordwood. It took a hydraulic arm to life a 10-foot,
never seen again. Was it a shark? Nobody knows for sure.
680-pound female dusky shark aboard. Inside her belly a
It’s a big ocean, and sharks move in the shadows.
dozen unborn pups squirmed around in the uterus, visible
Considering that shark s are among the most ancient of
through the membrane. Female sharks of many species
creatures--they have been around for 400 million
do not reproduce until they are 11 or 12 years old. Then,
years--and are among the most diverse--there are 350
they bear only eight to 10 live young every other year.
species, ranging in size from six-ounce cigar sharks to
Biologists fear that heavily fished shark populations may
15-ton whale sharks--it is amazing how little man knows
recofer their depleted numbers very slowly or not at all.
about the fish. The following report is the result of a study conducted aboard a commercial fishing boat, another
"So what!" is a common reaction to that conjecture. "The
aboard a sportfishing vessel, and with a landmark
sooner they’re gone, the better," says a fearful--and largely
ignorant--mankind. But a fishery worth millions of dollars will be gone, too. Since 1900. Scottish spiny dogfish,
Long a traditional dish in Asia, Europe and Latin America,
harmless basking sharks and porbeagles have virtually
shark--often billed as mako, although several species are
disappeared from the North Atlantic, as have school
succulently edible--has become popular fare in parts of the
sharks off Australia, and soupfin sharks off California. Blue
- Reprinted with permission. Additional copying is prohibited. -Sports IllustratedDec 4, 1989 v71 n23 p97(7)The shadows of the sea: people fear shark, but they are vital to the sea.
sharks, threshers and angel sharks appear to be reaching
the overfished stage on the Pacific coast.
The weather wasn’t cooperating for the three-day event,
Ironically, the population of great white sharks, the most
and the 40-foot charter boat pounded in the waves. Spray
renowned man-eaters, is increasing, at least along the
blasted the windshield. Captain Yogi McIntosh clung to the
California coast. It was off Zuma Beach, about four miles
wheel and throttles, slowing down and then speeding up
from Malibu, that two abandoned kayaks were found
the throbbing diesel as we worked our way offshore. Rick
lashed together, one behind the other, on Jan. 27 of this
and Chuck Stillwell from Port Salerno had paid $1,200 to
year. The body of one of the kayak owners, Tamara
charter the Mindi for the tournament.
McAllister, 24, was found the next day, floating 50 miles away. She had suffered a massive shark bite, 13 inches
At last we stopped and dropped the outriggers. Out came
across her left thigh. The young woman didn’t drown, she
the rods and reels, and McIntosh baited up with live mullet
bled to death. The coroner said there was evidence that
that he had caught earlier with a cast net. "The mullet are
McAllister had been flailing the water. There were classic
doing the chumming for us," said McIntosh. "A shark can
signs of an attack by a great white shark. McAllister’s
smell them a mile away and here he’ll come." Sharks can
boyfriend, Roy Stoddard, a fellow UCLA graduate student,
detect minute quantities of a substance in the water--as
had been in the other kayak. He was never found.
little as one part per billion--and home in on it.
John McCosker, director of the Steinhart Aquarium in San
The lines played out. If ever there were distressed fish
Francisco, says, "I doubt they ever saw the shark, no more
giving off vibrations, these were. The mullet sped
than a sea lion floating on the surface ever sees the one
desperately into the depths. When a shark closes in, it is
that kills it. To the shark’s eye looking upward, the
aided in locating a potential meal by being able to detect
silhouette of the kayaks must have looked like normal
electrical fields of one hundred-millionth of a volt through
their ampullae of Lorenzini, the little jelly-filled pits, which are electroreceptors, found on the undersides of their
"We already have one of the largest white shark
snouts. They sense the electrical fields generated by the
populations in the world. As the mammal population
muscle activity in other animals, which is why certain
grows, it appears the shark population follows. And so will
sharks can locate and seize flounder that lie completely
attacks on humans. I heartily endorse the Marine Mammal
Protection Act, but that’s the reason the great whites are increasing."
Only minutes passed before one of the rods bent violently. "It’s a hit," yelled McIntosh, dashing forward, grabbing the
Sharks are predators at the top of the food chain, the
rod and whipping it backward to set the hook. Rick Stillwell
awesome wolves and tigers of the ocean. They are critical
jumped into the fighting chair, took the bending rod and
in maintaining the ecological balance of the seas. If they
began reeling madly. It wasn’t a monstrous shark, but it
disappear, it will affect many other species. California sea
took all his strength to keep it coming toward the boat.
lions and seals are multiplying rapidly--the estimated current population of 90,000 sea lions is double that of 10
In a few moments the shark surfaced. It was a
years ago--and scientists think that the great whites are
hammerhead of barely 50 pounds. McIntosh slipped on his
needed to cull the sick and the slow in order to maintain a
gloves, leaned over, taking a wave in the face, and
healthy gene pool. Sandbar sharks, blacktips, lemons and
grabbed the leader. "Hell, he ain’t hardly hooked!"
sharpnose sharks eat finfish that feed on shrimp; a
McIntosh cried out. He reached down and grabbed the
multimillion-dollar shrimp fishery could be harmed should
shark by its airfoil-shaped head, and with all his might
those species of sharks become depleted. Bull sharks and
jerked it up. Everyone scattered as the fish pounded the
hammerheads are major predators of stingrays. If those
deck with its tail, arcing its grotesque hammer about the
sharks are fished out, will the venomous flat fish that injure
snapping its semicircular mouth filled with small, sharp
hundreds of bathers each year proliferate? Sandbar
teeth. McIntosh suffered a good wallop from the tail.
sharks feed on octopus, which in turn feed on stone crabs.
Shortly afterward, a larger hammerhead was hauled up.
If the sanbars are eliminated, will the stone crab fishery
This time McIntosh subdued it with a snub-nosed .38. As
abruptly as the action began, it stopped. There would be no more sharks caught by the Mindi this day. When we
At the same time that the commercial fishery for sharks
arrived back at the dock, an enormous bull shark was
has intensified, sport-fishing for the species has also
haning from the crane at Port Salerno’s Sandsprit Park. It
become popular. In September 1988 we boarded the
weighted out at 384 pounds and was enough to earn the
Mindi, one of 30 craft competing in the 13th annual Port
team of Mike Simonds and Robert Mostler the $2,500 first
- Reprinted with permission. Additional copying is prohibited. -Sports IllustratedDec 4, 1989 v71 n23 p97(7)The shadows of the sea: people fear shark, but they are vital to the sea.
prize. Crowds of people milled around the nearly
nine-foot-long fish, gazing up at it with expressions of awe and fear, and watching biologists who were examining the
After lunch we joined a team that uses ultrasonic tags to
track juvenile lemon sharks in the shallow sea-grass flats between the islands. The water was too shallow for an
"We enjoy having the biologists come down," said Karen
outboard, so an airboat was used. Through a deafening
Worden, one of the organizers of the tournament. "I can’t
roar Erich Glavitza, a manufacturer of snowmobile engines
see doing something like this and killing for nothing. We
whose hobby is studying sharks, drove us over the flats in
don’t take enough to hurt--over the years the tournament’s
pursuit of two-foot baby lemons. Chip Pike, a graduate
had as few as 18 and as high as 56 sharks." Thinking of
student of Gruber’s, was stationed on the bow, dip net in
the mass slaughter we had recently witnessed on the
hand. We zigzagged in hot pursuit of a fleeing sharklet,
long-liner, I couldn’t totally disagree with Worden’s view.
running it to exhaustion so that Pike could swoop it up in a net. Then the shark was rushed to a large chain-link pen
After the biologists measured the fish--recording such
that had been assembled in the shallow water of the flats.
things as the size of the fins, the number of its teeth, the length of its body--they dissected it. Tissue samples,
When we arrived, several baby lemon sharks were moving
frozen on the spot in liquid nitrogen, were collected by
restlessly around the pen, their tails undulating. After eons
Mote Marine Lab’s Hueter and his research team for a
of evolution they have become creatures of motion, of
study on the genetic differences among shark populations.
streamlining, with triangular fins that cut the water cleanly,
The shark’s gut was empty, and so was the uterus. "Looks
allowing them to pursue prey with both grace and violence.
like she recently pupped," Hueter said, holding up a flaccid oviduct.
With long-handled nets, Pike and John Morrissey, another graduate student, stalked the small lemons, grabbing at
As a rule, when a female shark gives birth, she stops
the sharks as they sped between their legs. Soon silt
feeding and swims offshore, away from the nursery
stirred off the bottom, and the dark forms moved like
grounds. She will not feed until she has traveled a
bombers through cloud formations. At last the students
considerable distance from her young. It is possible that
caught one. It squirmed as they held it aloft. Small holes
this instinct reduces cannibalism, because large sharks
were punched in the fish’s dorsal and pectoral fins for
are known to dine heavily on smaller ones.
quick visual identification. Sutures closed up an incision in the muscle where a sonic tag had been implanted. A
There was something atavistic about the scene at Port
yellow plastic tag, marking the implant, protruded from its
Salerno, something from our earliest hunter-gatherer
ancestry, when people came together to watch a large something being dismembered for dinner. As Worden said,
They turned the little lemon loose, and it sped off across
"People are afraid of them, yet they want to see them. If all
the flats. Now and then a tiny set of triangular dorsal fins
we had were bluefish, there wouldn’t be a fraction of the
appeared on the water’s surface for a second, throwing a
small wake before vanishing. Morrissey waded behind, dragging a hydrophone through the water, listening
Blacktip, sandbar, tiger, bull, dusky, hammerhead,
through the earphones for the occasional ping that
silky--we know very little about any of the sharks. We
indicated contact with the little shark. The scientists had
certainly do not know how many years it takes for a
population to replace itself. Lemon sharks grow about four inches a year and don’t reach sexual maturity until they
Slogging through the vast tidal flats in pursuit of Moxie,
are 13 to 15 years old, according to Dr. Samuel H. Guber
Morrissey said, "We’ve learned that baby lemons go back
of the University of Miami. That seems slow for a fish, but
to their home base and stay in about a 400-meter zone,
among sharks, who knows? Several blue sharks tagged
about 50 meters wide, along shore. They patrol the same
off New Jersey by NMFS scientists showed little or no
piece of bottom over and over again, and we haven’t the
growth on recapture seven years later.
faintest idea why. They aren’t territorial, they don’t defend their strip, their populations overlap. But they all have their
We joined Gruber’s research team as it worked off the
Marquesas, the tiny uninhabited islands west of Key West. That town’s clutter faded into the distance as we sped over
Another team, headed by veterinarian Dr. Charlie Manire,
the meadows of sea grass and coral reefs, heading for a
was tending research longlines a mile away. In those
rendezvous with the research vessel Columbus Iselin, a
deeper waters a six-foot nurse shark snatched and jerked
175-foot symbol of the effort underway here to understand
against the lines when the team approached. They hauled
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it to the surface, put a loop over the fish’s tail and another
on his fins, mask and snorkle, and dived overboard. He
around its head, just in front of the dorsal fin and behind
flipped and dying fish over and began swimming it,
the pectorals, and with much difficulty they secured it to
propelling it forward to circulate the water through its open
the gunwale of their 20-foot skiff. "Hold the tape on the
mouth and gills. We followed along in the boat, hoping it
nose," someone called out, above the splashing and
would come back to life and reclaim its place in nature.
grunting. Quickly, but with caution, they measured the distance from the nose to the first dorsal find, the space
At last the shark began to move, its caudal fin swishing
between the fins, and the length of the tail, checking for
back and forth. Finally, with a kick of its long graceful tail, it
small differences between this shark and those elsewhere
surged ahead under its own power. Manire swam behind
that might indicate separate populations.
for a moment, then popped up some distance away with a triumphant, "He’s gone."
Among other things, the measurements helped determine the dosage of tetracycline that would be injected into the
Now there was only open blue water, sea-grass meadows,
body cavity of the fish. This antibiotic leaves an identifiable
and mangrove islands--and somewhere out there a tagged
reference mark in the shark’s cartilagenous spine. If the
shark. A fearsome shadow of the deep.
shark is ever recaptured, the number of growth rings that have been formed since creating the marker will provide
Jack and Anne Rudloe are Florida-based naturalists who
frequently collaborate on manuscripts.
The scientists jabbed a tag into the nurse’s dorsal fin--a long piece of monofilament with a tube attached containing a scroll of information for fishermen on what to do should they capture the shark. Then the team took a blood sample, rolling the creature on its belly, cutting through the hide to insert a needle, and drawing a syringeful out of the tail artery. The blood would later be analyzed on the basis of 12 different parameters. Of most interest to Gruber is the role hormones play in female shark reproduction.
Then the hook was pried as gently as possible from the shark’s jaw, and the fish was sent on its way. The nurse took off with a great swish of its tail. It seemed more annoyed than damaged by the experience. That is not always the case.
A struggling 6-1/2-foot lemon came up next, full of life when the scientists first approached. But by the time they got it mouth-up with dorsal fin down--which has a tranquilizing effect on sharks--most of its life seemed gone. "When you catch them, a few specimens seem to give up and just fade away," said Glavitza.
Manire held the lemon nose-down with one hand and worked vise-grip pliers back and forth, trying to get the hook out. "Give me a scalpel," he finally hollered. He cut the tissue around the barb until it popped out.
They let the shark go, but it sank limply to the bottom, landing on its back, its stark white belly showing up through the blue water from five feet below. We had observed the same scene several times in the past few months. But this time it was accompanied by a sick feeling of loss.
We were not alone in that feeling. Hastily, Manire jerked
- Reprinted with permission. Additional copying is prohibited. -

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